Hernia pad



Sept. 25, 1951 L. ZARAS HERNIA PAD Filed April 22, 194

INVENTOR. LOUIS ZARAS Patented Sept. 25, 1951 j UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HERNIA PAD Louis Zaras, New York, N. Y.

Application April 22, 1949, Serial No. 88,987

1 Claim.

1 "This-invention relatesto new and useful imtime further advantages are afforded.

Among these latter are. such. features as comparatively few parts. the ease and relatively low costv of? fabrication of said parts, their convenient and expeditious manner of assembly, and

an ideal resilient or elastic action at the region of pressure relative to the weakened orruptured muscular tissues of the patient.

According to the invention, more specifically, the new pad is composed in the main of a single formed piece of rubber or the like, shaped to incorporate a major hollow protuberance, and also sha'pedto include apreferably solid neckportion which near its free extremity carries a lesser protuberance arranged to ,coact Withsaid major protuberance in providing a padadapted to have a distinct under-hooking engagement with a groin adjacent region of the body offside from the scrotum. Also, desirably, said shaped piece of natural, artificial or synthetic rubber is cover-ed all over its body contacting surfaces with a cushioning fibrous sheet, such as a sheet of loosely compacted felt or the like, suitably secured in place as by an appropriate adhesive.

Further according to the invention, the new pad also includes a backing in the form of a gently longitudinally curved generally elongate plate of substantially inflexible material, as one made of a plastic; and said piece and said plate are coupled by interfitting rib and groove means, with the groove component of the main means extending perimetrically of said piece and with the rib component of said means constituted by marginal portions of said plate.

With said groove component starting at one side of the pad and near the said free extremity of said neck and thence continuing all around the perimeter of the pad bottom as far as a point at the other side of the pad also near said extremity, and with the waist belt of the truss assemblage crossingly secured to said plate laterally thereof and the crotch belt of said assemblage connected at its front and rising end to said plate near the then lowermost end of the latter at said neck, the main piece and said plate are so inter-engaged and-merely by cross-wedge action that during wearing of the truss assemblage any and all accidentalpulls on the pad structure are effective to tighten said inter-engagement rather than loosen the same.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of theobjects and advantages thereof, reference will behad to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claim in which the various novel features of the inventionare more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Fig. 1 is What may be called a top plan view 'of a now favored embodiment of the padof the in vention that is, a view looking at the sideof the pad structure which is to be directed against the body of the wearer of the appliance.

Fig. 2'is a bottom plan viewof said padstructure. I

Fig. 3 is an end-elevation thereof.

Fig. dis a side elevation thereof.

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section, taken on the line5--5 of Fig.2.

Fig. 6- is a transverse section, taken on the line 6'6 of Fig; 2. e Fig. 7' is a perspective view of the backing plate, per se.

Referring now to the'drawings morei-n detail and preliminarily pointing out that the aforesaid elastic waist belt is fragmentarily indicated in dot and dash lines at M in Fig. 2 and that the aforesaid elastic crotch belt I5 is fragmentarily shown in full lines, the aforesaid main piece of the new pad is designated l6 and its aforesaid backing plate is designated IT.

The main piece i6 is comprised of a major protuberance is having an interior hollow l9, a solid neck 20 and a lesser protuberance 2| continuing from the neck.

The plate I! is formed of a resinous plastic material and is shown as of constant thickness throughout, as shaped to have an outline conforming to that of the bottom of the main piece l6, and as being longitudinally gently curved at one end in agreement with a curvature along the bottom of the piece i6 at the neck end thereof. While as just stated the outline of the plate ll conforms to that of the bottom of the piece 16, the dimensions of said plate are such that the actual outline of the main subdivision of the plate precisely agrees with the area of the bottom of the piece is where encompassed by the inner surface 22 of a depending wall forming part of a flange 22 of substantially L-shaped crosssection and integral with the piece I6. With said piece 16 of ordinary fairly soft natural rubber, as is preferred, said flange structure is normally biased to be disposed as illustrated, yet the bottom lip thereof may be readily temporarily manually pried slightly open in order to insert the plate I! so that thereafter said plate will be locked in place by a Wedge-action inter-engagement as already mentioned.

The neck 20, at the undersidethereof,'beyond the adjacent termini of the flange 22, has a cavitation 23, see Fig. 5, to accommodate the split shank of a familiar type of brass fastener 24 following use of the latter, at an aperture through the plate IT, for securing a folded-over end portion of the crotch strap I to said plate.

The waist belt I4 is slidably engaged with the plate 11 in any suitable way, but, preferably, is

slidably extended through a bridging plate '25.

secured to the exposed-face of the plate [1 over the major protuberance 1B of the main piece 16. The bridging plate 25 is formed of the same resinous plastic material as the plate I! and is bonded thereto by any known method for securing together two like resinous plastic members.

The exposed face of the main piece I6 is covered by a cover sheet 26 of a cushioning fibrous material, as ;a sheet of felt, lying all over and spread to conform to the contour of the body contacting side of the pad. The sheet 26 is shown as conforming longitudinally and laterally to the contour of the piece [6.

Due to the groove means provided by the flange 22, for coaction with the rib means constituted by the marginal portions of the plate I! extending perimetrically of the major subdivision of said plate, it being observed that the maximum width of said subdivisionis intermediate the ends thereof in the direction of length of the plate, it is a quick and easy matter to assemble the parts l6 and I! or to disassemble them for cleaning and other sanitary reasons; yet, once they have been assembled, it is impossible to separate them except by deliberately manually prying partly open the bottom lip of said flange, and, indeed, as already stated, the wedging inter-engagement between the parts l6 and l! is such that during the wearing of the truss assemblage any and all accidental pulls on the pad structure are effective to tighten rather thanloosen such wedging.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise construction herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

A hernia pad comprising an elongated main structure having on its body contacting side a main hollow protuberance near one end thereof and a lesser solid protuberance near the other end thereof, a backing plate extended along the back face of said structure, a flange formed about the perimeter of the back face of said structure and having an inwardly facing groove into which the edge portions of said backing plate are engaged, said flange being interrupted about the said other end of said structure from one side of said lesser protuberance to the other side thereof, said lesser protuberance having a cavity facing the inner face of said backing plate and opening to the other end of said structure, so constructed and arranged to have the end of a crotch belt extended into said cavity and secured to the inner face of said backing plate, and a bridging plate secured in position on the exposed face of said backing plate over the main protuberance for having a waist engaging belt passed slidably therethrough.

LOUIS ZARAS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 703,847 Stewart July 1, 1902 1,057,464 Simanek Apr. 1, 1913 1,907,300 Lowe May 2, 1933 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 37,385 Netherlands Jan. 15, 1936 82,549 Germany Aug. '7, 1894 

